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  <div class="section" id="alternate-php-syntax-for-view-files">
<h1>Alternate PHP Syntax for View Files<a class="headerlink" href="#alternate-php-syntax-for-view-files" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>If you do not utilize CodeIgniter&#8217;s <a class="reference internal" href="../libraries/parser.html"><em>template
engine</em></a>, you&#8217;ll be using pure PHP in your
View files. To minimize the PHP code in these files, and to make it
easier to identify the code blocks it is recommended that you use PHPs
alternative syntax for control structures and short tag echo statements.
If you are not familiar with this syntax, it allows you to eliminate the
braces from your code, and eliminate &#8220;echo&#8221; statements.</p>
<div class="section" id="automatic-short-tag-support">
<h2>Automatic Short Tag Support<a class="headerlink" href="#automatic-short-tag-support" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">If you find that the syntax described in this page does not
work on your server it might be that &#8220;short tags&#8221; are disabled in your
PHP ini file. CodeIgniter will optionally rewrite short tags on-the-fly,
allowing you to use that syntax even if your server doesn&#8217;t support it.
This feature can be enabled in your <em>config/config.php</em> file.</p>
</div>
<p>Please note that if you do use this feature, if PHP errors are
encountered in your <strong>view files</strong>, the error message and line number
will not be accurately shown. Instead, all errors will be shown as
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">eval()</span></tt> errors.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="alternative-echos">
<h2>Alternative Echos<a class="headerlink" href="#alternative-echos" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Normally to echo, or print out a variable you would do this:</p>
<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nv">$variable</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>With the alternative syntax you can instead do it this way:</p>
<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?=</span><span class="nv">$variable</span><span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="alternative-control-structures">
<h2>Alternative Control Structures<a class="headerlink" href="#alternative-control-structures" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Controls structures, like if, for, foreach, and while can be written in
a simplified format as well. Here is an example using <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">foreach</span></tt>:</p>
<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">ul</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>

<span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">foreach</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$todo</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="nv">$item</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">:</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>

        <span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">li</span><span class="p">&gt;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nv">$item</span><span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">li</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>

<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">endforeach</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>

<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">ul</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Notice that there are no braces. Instead, the end brace is replaced with
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">endforeach</span></tt>. Each of the control structures listed above has a similar
closing syntax: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">endif</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">endfor</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">endforeach</span></tt>, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">endwhile</span></tt></p>
<p>Also notice that instead of using a semicolon after each structure
(except the last one), there is a colon. This is important!</p>
<p>Here is another example, using <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">if</span></tt>/<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">elseif</span></tt>/<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">else</span></tt>. Notice the colons:</p>
<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$username</span> <span class="o">===</span> <span class="s1">&#39;sally&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">:</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>

        <span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h3</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Hi Sally<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h3</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>

<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">elseif</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$username</span> <span class="o">===</span> <span class="s1">&#39;joe&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">:</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>

        <span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h3</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Hi Joe<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h3</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>

<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">else</span><span class="o">:</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>

        <span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h3</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Hi unknown user<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h3</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>

<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">endif</span><span class="p">;</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
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